Thursday, January 15, 2009

Cincinnati in the era of Obama

Though Cincinnati was once in major contention for being the capital of the United States, it has been generations since The Queen City has been considered a leading US City.

Though we boast being the home of the largest marketing conglomerates in the world, serve as resident to the world renowned Underground Railroad Freedom Center and home to one of the most architecturally historic neighborhoods in the country (shout out to Over-the-Rhine), Cincinnati still follows the ol’ Samuel Clemmons quote stating that if the world ended, he would want to be here in Cincinnati due to the fact that we are consistently a few decades behind the rest of the world.

Having Obama being as our 44th president and riding on the coattails of the great push for “change”, I can’t help but to think that Cincinnati will come through and buck its trend, beginning to operate as a leading city, in both the state of Ohio and the United States (more so the former than the latter).

On the cusp of an historical Inaugural Day, here are my hopes for Over the Rhine and Downtown Cincinnati in the age of Obama:

An eco-friendly public transit system connecting Downtown with Clifton/University of Cincinnati area (i.e. street cars…just a thought)

A Successful “Banks” Experiment

Investment of appropriate amount of resources for education of youth and young adults living in and around the Over-the-Rhine area

Responsible investment in sports teams: (get rid of the bad apples and invest in well rounded administrators/coaches/players!)

Metro-Sexual shopping options for the functional homosexual that will not break your savings account

All of these goals are both attainable and measurable, so all you socio-economic gu-roos should not have a problem seeing the positive impact these steps would have on the Over-the-Rhine community. OK… the sports wish is stretching it a bit, bit I felt obligated to through their success into the mix.

I would love to hear your comments on these steps or any that I left out.